Released August 1984 Recorded 1984 Length 3:59 | Format 7" single Genre Pop | |
B-side "Letters From the Road" | ||
"Strut" is a song recorded by Sheena Easton for her album A Private Heaven (1984). It was released by EMI America in August 1984 as the album's lead single and peaked that November at #7 on the US Billboard Hot 100 (its Cash Box peak was #4). "Strut" was composed by singer/songwriter Charlie Dore (who had had a moderate solo hit of her own in the U.S. with "Pilot of the Airwaves" several years prior) and her longtime songwriting partner, Julian Littman.
Easton had been sent the demo for the song by Christopher Neil who had been Easton's first producer. Like its parent album overall, the "Strut" single and accompanying video signaled Easton's shift towards a more sexually suggestive image.
The song appears to be about the singer being upset with a man for wanting her to be like a previous lover, and about the sexism of men in general for wanting or expecting women to behave in a certain fashion ("Strut, pout/Put it out/That's what you want from women").
"Strut" was nominated for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female at the 27th Grammy Awards.
In the UK - where "Strut" was released in November 1984 - the track became the first US Top 40 single by Easton to completely miss the Top 100 of the UK charts.
"Strut" was one of two songs performed by Easton at the opening ceremonies of Expo 86 in Vancouver 2 May 1986 (her second song was "For Your Eyes Only").
In 1986 Easton, dressed as a geisha, performed "Strut" in a Japanese TV commercial for shōchū.
Hong Kong singer Anita Mui later covered the song in Cantonese "壞女孩" (Bad Girl), which became one of her famous songs.